Romney campaign insiders want to keep a tight lid on information about the Romney faith speech, scheduled for Thursday. Romney himself made the decision to give it, they say, he’ll decide what to say, and he’ll write it. “This is a very personal speech,” one campaign aide told me tonight. “This will be a speech from the heart.”

Romney and his team have carefully studied JFK’s 1960 speech (which we should post in its entirety here; it’s really fascinating). Kennedy, addressing what he called the “so-called religious issue,” said he did not intend “to disavow either my views or my church in order to win this election.” Last month, traveling with Romney in Iowa, he told me, “I know there are some people hoping that I will simply declare in some way that my church is all well and good but that I don’t really believe it and I don’t try to follow it. That’s not going to happen. I’m proud of my faith. I love my faith. It is the faith of my fathers and mothers. I do my best to live by its teachings. And it in every way would teach me to follow the Constitution and follow the rule of law and recognize that my duty is to my country.”

In 1960, Kennedy also suggested that those who raised questions about his religion were deeply un-American. Just as he would not favor a president who sought to subvert guarantees of religious liberty, Kennedy said, “Neither do I look with favor upon those who would work to subvert Article VI of the Constitution by requiring a religious test, even by indirection. For if they disagree with that safeguard, they should be openly working to repeal it.” It will be interesting to see if Romney goes that far.

One thing Kennedy said that Romney won’t is this: “This is the kind of America I believe in — and this is the kind of America I fought for in the South Pacific, and the kind my brother died for in Europe.” That was a pretty strong deal-closer.